TROY — Sometimes when I check my messages in the morning, I'll hear a voice that just has to be featured in an Advocate column. I got one of those calls over the weekend.

The voice belonged to Michele Warren. She didn't have a complaint or a problem. She just wanted the world to know about her home and the organization that saved her life.

"People should know how beautiful this place is," Warren said. "And how good they are here. And how they helped me."

So that, mostly, is what this story is about.

Warren is 59 years old. The Albany native has not had an easy journey.

Here are just two of the horrors she suffered: Growing up in the rough Sheridan Hollow neighborhood, Warren was raped when she was 17. She also watched an 18-year-cousin, Christina Cannabucci, be murdered by a brick tossed off the old Hawk Street Viaduct.

It's stating the obvious to say events like those take a toll. For Warren, they contributed to an alcoholism that made it difficult for her to cope with ordinary life. The result: She was homeless for 12 years, living on the streets of Troy.

She's not homeless now.

About six years ago, Warren found something special at Joseph's House, a Troy group that operates three shelters for the mentally ill homeless. The group's counselors convinced Warren to accept help and come in from the cold.

"Sometimes people are very proud of their ability to survive independently," said Tracy Neitzel, the executive director at Joseph's House.

"I was proud," Warren added. "Then I got to be 53, and I was tired."

Warren's home is an apartment in a newly constructed Joseph's House building on Fourth Street, in the Little Italy south of Troy's downtown. At first, the 22 residents of the Hill Street Inn, as the building is called, weren't exactly welcomed.

Some neighbors objected, fearing the building's impact on a reviving neighborhood. City officials even tried to stop construction. But after Joseph's House filed two federal lawsuits, the city grudgingly allowed the project to proceed.

I don't think you can blame Little Italy for being wary. Rare is the neighborhood that would happily accept a new host of troubled neighbors, including some schizophrenics, without a peep of concern.

"It was the unknown," said Rocco DeFazio, a longtime neighborhood champion who owns a nearby restaurant and grocery. "And people are afraid of the unknown."

The Hill Street Inn has been open for about a year now. And Michelle Warren was right — the place is beautiful.

The building's red-brick exterior nicely fits the old neighborhood. Behind a tall wall is a gorgeously landscaped courtyard, an oasis from city concrete. And then there are the apartments.

Michele Warren — she goes by "Mitch" — lives in a third-floor studio with a great view of the surrounding neighborhood. She pays $293 for room and board, and she doesn't plan to move anytime soon.

If Warren's unit was on the opposite side of the building, she'd have a view of her old home — Prospect Park, where she pitched a tent for years.

So how did Joseph's House, funded by a blend of private and public money, convince Warren to accept help? Among other steps, they asked her a simple question: Do you need anything?

Despite her traumas — she's been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder — Warren has an easy smile that makes her popular in Troy. She's a great ambassador for the Hill Street Inn.

"People are shocked when they see me," she said. "They say, 'You're not living in the streets anymore?' And I say, 'No, I live in that nice building right there.'"

It'd be wrong to say everything is perfect in the relationship between the neighborhood and its new residents. Teens sometimes yell unkind things as they pass the building, their taunts echoing in the courtyard. And I'm sure there are others who still harbor reservations about the Hill Street Inn.

But on the whole, the neighborhood has worked hard to welcome the newcomers — and most of the initial fears seem to have faded.

"Once you see the building and get to know the people and the staff, it isn't the unknown anymore," DeFazio said. "They've been great for the neighborhood."

The new residents fielded a team in the local stickball tournament. And last winter, the Hill Street Inn even hosted Little Italy's annual Christmas party.

This year, DeFazio wants to add to the Christmas celebration with a ceremony that's reminiscent of how Joseph's House welcomes the homeless — and how Little Italy ultimately welcomed Joseph's House.

DeFazio is planning a posada, a ritual re-enactment in which two people play the roles of Mary and Joseph. They knock on door after door, looking for a place to stay. But again and again the couple is rejected, before they finally find a door that allows entry.

In the Troy version of the posada, it will be the Joseph's House building that welcomes them.

Warren can appreciate the symbolism. "I was never safe," she said. "I never felt safe in my life until I came here."